Two Timelines
by TardisIsTheOnlyWayToTravel
Summary: Something's gone badly wrong with history. The Doctor, along with Rose, investigates to find an airship called the Valiant, an old enemy, an enormous paradox and ....himself? Ninth and Tenth Doctors. Response to Jessa L'Rynn's Aug Challenge. Chapter 3 up.
1. The Valiant

**Jessa L'Rynn's August Challenge 1: **_The Rewrite Challenge. People love rewrites. You may choose any episode of modern or Classic!Who, EXCEPT Stolen Earth/Journey's End. You must add or subtract companions, or you may switch Doctors or companions if you prefer. But someone has to be there who wasn't or gone who was. The rules are simple. You cannot cheat. No taking the established dialogue and shuffling it. You must really, REALLY think about it. Rose would never think of a forklift suicide, Sarah-Jane wouldn't need to be told what a Dalek was, Six wouldn't call someone a "stupid ape" when he could say "degenerate, semi-evolved primate" instead, and Nine wouldn't have gone through that mirror alone. You don't have to "back story" if you don't want to, but you have to do it right. For the record, though, don't do Classic!Who if you don't know it. No, really don't._

**-**

**Title**: Two Timelines

**Author:** TardisIsTheOnlyWaytoTravel

**Story Summary: **Something's gone badly wrong with history. The Doctor, along with Rose, investigates to find an airship called the Valiant, and enormous paradox and ...himself? Stars Nine, and Ten.

**Setting: **Just after _Last of the Time Lords, _series three.

**Author notes:**

_This is a response to Jessa L'Rynn's above challenge. I'm not sure I'm entirely happy with this chapter; I may yet rewrite it a little. We'll see._

* * *

**TWO TIMELINES **

**CHAPTER ONE**

* * *

It was quiet, not unusually so, for this place. Sometimes it was filled with noise and laughter, or friendly banter; other times it held a content silence, as its occupants dwelled companionably with no need for speech. But something in the quality of the silence had changed, as though the ship were anticipating something, and so the human girl had gone in search of the ship's other occupant. They made a strange pair, a young girl who'd lived all her life in the poorer area of London, and the ancient, intelligent alien with a tendency to brood, but it seemed to work. Probably it was mostly due to the fact that in their own way each quietly adored the other, even if they'd never admit it to anyone. Affection has a way of smoothing out most differences.

She found the Doctor in the console room, frowning at the console screen, in a way that Rose immediately identified as _something's not right here._

"What's wrong?" She peered over his shoulder curiously, despite knowing that she wouldn't be able to understand a word.

"Something's gone wrong with history," he said curtly. "There's quarantine on Earth's entire system. Mauve alert. No one goes in or out."

"Mauve?" Rose repeated. "But… what year is it?"

"2007," the Doctor said grimly.

"Two years since I left," Rose said wonderingly. "What could have gone so wrong in two years that no one's allowed near Earth?"

"All kind of things," the Doctor replied. "There could've been a plague, or an invasion by a hostile species, or maybe humans are the hostile species. Not exactly warm and tolerant, you lot. Wouldn't put it past you to declare war on the rest of the universe."

"Oi," Rose said indignantly, "you don't know that's what's going on. Could be anything."

The Doctor ignored this, possibly because he didn't have a good answer. He fiddled with the controls.

"We landing, then?" Rose asked him.

"Yep. There's some kind of satellite network boosting a signal all over the planet, but the signal itself is only being sent from one place."

"Where we're landing," Rose guessed.

"Yep." He grinned at her. "Hold on." The TARDIS abruptly shook, before whirling in all directions. Rose was more or less used to that by now, but almost lost her grip on one of the coral-like struts at a particularly violent rattle.

Suddenly all movement stopped.

-

Rose followed the Doctor out – and almost ran into him. The TARDIS had parked herself in a storage room, and there wasn't much space left over. The Doctor used his sonic screwdriver to fiddle the lock, and opened the door.

Rose gasped.

The door opened out onto a hallway, but what astounded her was the view from the windows opposite – pale sky and beneath it, clouds.

The Doctor glanced out at the view, and began walking.

Rose followed.

"Are we... in the air?"

The Doctor glanced back.

"D'you think we'd be anywhere else, with a view like that?" He looked ahead again. "Some sort of air-ship."

"I've never seen one of these before," Rose commented.

"Top-secret," the Doctor explained. "Military stuff. This sort of technology doesn't become mainstream for another century and a half." He stopped suddenly, with a wave indicating her to be quiet. "D'you hear voices?"

Rose listened hard.

"Sounds like someone's yelling."

"Come on." The Doctor followed the sound.

-

They emerged through a doorway into an enormous room. There were two men, an elderly one in a wheelchair, and a ginger-haired, youngish one in a smart suit. He was doing the yelling.

"Sorry to interrupt," the Doctor said cheerily, plastering on his daft cheerful grin, "but we seem to have gotten a bit lost. Don't suppose you could direct us to...?"

But at the sight of them the old man's eyes had widened.

"O, no no no no no!" It was a yell of horrified disbelief and denial. "That's impossible! You can't be here!"

"It looks like you decided to pay yourself a little visit, Doctor!" the ginger-haired man yelled in triumphant delight.

"Wait, is that you?" Rose asked disbelievingly, staring at the old man, who was still looking at her wild-eyed.

"Apparently," the Doctor replied dryly.

The ginger-haired man was grinning like a Cheshire cat.

"How nice of you to join us, Doctor," he greeted him. "And this must be the _fantastic_ Rose Tyler." He leered at her. 'The Doctor and his little human love. I almost feel honoured, Doctor," he cooed mockingly at the old man.

" 'Little human love?' " the Doctor heard Rose repeat under her breath.

"Charmed," the Doctor told the stranger. "Glad to know we could help. It's always nice to be appreciated, isn't it, Rose?" He grinned at her cheerily.

"Appreciated, yeah," Rose agreed slowly. She didn't know what was going on, but it seemed ominous.

"And since I'm here already then obviously we've met, but I'm afraid the name escapes me for the moment, so why don't you remind me?"

The madman grinned in delighted realisation.

"Look at you, you really have no clue who I am," he observed to the old man. "Did the Time War really damage you that much?" He shook his head mock-sorrowfully.

"What d'you know about the Time War?" The Doctor's voice was sharp and suddenly dangerous.

The ginger-haired man just smiled like a lunatic.

"Maybe if you lowered your shields, you'd have some idea."

Rose glanced between him and the Doctor, wondering what was going on.

A moment later the Doctor's eyes hardened and the lines of his face turned to stone.

"Koschei." If his voice had been dangerous before, it was positively menacing now.

The other's smile vanished in an instant.

"Don't call me that!" he spat.

"Why not?" the Doctor still watched him stony-faced, "it's your name isn't it?"

"Then perhaps I should address you by your own, Doctor!" Koschei flung at him.

"Right, the Master it is then," the Doctor said, unperturbed. "Rose, the bloke with the mad grin and uncertain temper is called the Master, likes to try and take over the world, tends to dress a bit eccentric. Don't know about the suit, he didn't have that last time I saw him, still, least he's lost the cape."

" Do you really think I'm going to accept fashion critiques from a man who walked around in a patchwork quilt of a coat for a decade and spent an entire regeneration dressed like an Edwardian cricketer?" the Master sneered.

"Thing is," the Doctor continued explaining to Rose, completely ignoring the Master's interpolation. "he was s'posed to have died in the Time War, so what's he doing subjugating the Earth?"

"Chameleon Arch," the old Doctor said suddenly. Everyone turned to stare at him. He looked old, and immensely tired, but within the folds of wrinkles his brown eyes had the same intelligence and sense of ancient power that Rose felt every time she looked into her Doctor's stormy blue eyes.

"He ran to the end of the universe and hid himself using a Chameleon Arch," the old Doctor continued wearily, "rewriting his DNA so he was human and giving him a set of fake memories to match, so that no one could find him. He spent almost his entire lifespan trying to do good and help the human settlement there until me and my companions showed up."

"And then the clever Miss Jones drew my attention to the watch storing all my Time Lord memories and DNA, so that I opened it and was restored to my true self," the Master said triumphantly. "I'd think you'd be pleased to see me, Doctor. After all, it means you're not the last Time Lord after all. Aren't you glad you're not alone?"

"No Time Lords at all is better than having you hanging around," the Doctor retorted. The Master smirked.

"That's not what your current regeneration thinks, _is it_, Doctor?" He kicked the old man, making him wince. The Master's voice dropped into a song-song tone. "It's all _different_ now, can't you see, it's just the _two_ of us, can't we just hold hands a nd be _friends_?" He kicked the old Doctor again. "Even now, when I've _destroyed_ this pitiful planet and broken both his hearts, he _still_ wants me around to fill the empty spaces in his mind! It's pathetic!"

He laughed.

Rose saw the old Doctor wince yet again and couldn't stand it any longer.

"Stop it!" she yelled at the Master. "Why do you have to keep hurting him?"

The Master turned to her with amused, malicious interest, as though he's almost forgotten she was there.

"Because it's _fun_, Rose," he beamed. "It is Rose, isn't it? The Doctor's perfect little human." And he slapped her across the face.

The Doctor hit him. There didn't seem to be any conscious though involved; his fit just drove forward into the Master's voice, sending him over backwards.

"Leave her alone!" the old Doctor was roaring, "don't you dare touch Rose!"

The Master was getting to his feet and feeling his jaw. He glanced up, gaze dark, and met the Doctor's eyes. For a moment his eyes mirrored the Doctor's, in reverse: ancient, powerful, and filled with malevolence and utter insanity.

It was only for an instant, though, and then his eyes were veiled again with the appearance of humanity. But Rose could feel the hair standing up all over her body and knew that whatever else he was, the Master was extremely dangerous. When the Time Lord's eyes had met it had been like a raging inferno meeting a terrible storm. In some way they were equal, and it scared Rose horribly.

"Well, this is all lovely and I hate to break up the party," the Master's voice was suddenly upbeat again, "but I'm afraid I really can't have you interfering with my little empire. _Guards!_" he yelled.

There was a moment's silence. No guards. The Master sighed.

"Honestly, you can't get decent minions these days," he confided, "they're all hopeless. Ah! Lucy!"

Everyone else looked around to see a pretty, pale blonde woman in a well-cut, expensive dress watching from the doorway with curiosity.

"Lucy, my love," the Master called, "Would you be a dear and fetch the guards? There seems to be a little problem with communications at the moment."

"Of course, Harry." Lucy smiled at him. "Who are these people?"

The Master laughed.

"Curious, aren't you, my beautiful little ape? Would you believe that this is the Doctor in an earlier regeneration, and his precious Rose?"

Lucy looked at Rose with wide-eyed interest. There was something wrong about her gaze; it was sort of dreamy, but in an empty kind of way.

"Are you going to kill her?" Lucy asked in breathless fascination.

The Master smiled.

"I'm sure I can think of something more interesting than that," he told her. "Now run along and fetch those guards for me."

Lucy gave him a happy, little-girl smile and left.

"What's wrong with her?" Rose asked the Master, angry, and a little afraid. Lucy's expressions had all been so placid and unthinking.

He gave her a big grin.

"Ooh, you noticed!" Perceptive little human, aren't you? I haven't the faintest idea. Isn't it marvellous? Ah, so you decided to show up!" he addressed the soldiers entering the room. "Escort these two to the cells, will you? Put them with" - he deliberated for a moment – "yes, I think with the Captain and the remains of his little Torchwood team." He smiled at Rose and the Doctor. "Anything you want to say before you're locked away in my wonderfully secure cells never to be seen again?"

"Yeah." The Doctor gave him a look. "A human?"

The Master laughed with genuine amusement.

"Well, if you can have one, why not I? Guards! Take them away!" He grinned. "Ooh, I just love saying that. Must rush, have a galaxy to conquer, ta-ta, bye bye!"

The soldiers grabbed Rose and the Doctor roughly and forced them from the room. Rose glanced back just as she went through the doorway.

The Master just stood there, smiling maniacally, brown eyes dark.

* * *

_END CHAPTER_

_Next: Rose and the Doctor find out what's going on, meet a new/old friend (depending on whose point of view), see the Toclafanes for the first time, and discover that things are even worse than they thought._


	2. Two Doctors

Title: Two Timelines

**Title**: Two Timelines

**Author:** TardisIsTheOnlyWaytoTravel

**Story Summary: **Something's gone badly wrong with history. The Doctor, along with Rose, investigates to find an airship called the Valiant, an enormous paradox and ...himself? Stars Nine, and Ten.

**Setting: **Just after _Last of the Time Lords, _series three.

**Author notes:**

_As noted in the first chapter, this is a response to Jessa L'Rynn's August Challenge #1._

_The Master's character isn't as spot-on here as it was in the first chapter, I think, but it's fairly tolerable. (Don't you just love Mr Manic Evil?)_

* * *

**TWO TIMELINES **

**CHAPTER TWO**

* * *

Rose and the Doctor were escorted through the ship by the guards. They were all silent and stony-faced and didn't acknowledge the prisoners at all. The Doctor tried to get a response from them.

"Unpleasant bloke, isn't he?" he asked the guards. "He always was a bit mad, dunno why. How come you decided to throw in your lot with him?"

"You will be silent," a guard said mechanically.

"What, for asking a question? Isn't that a bit–"

One of the guards punched hi min the stomach. The Doctor doubled over, gasping. Rose tried to move closer to him, but was restrained.

"You will be silent," the guard told him, staring down at him. The Doctor looked up. There was fear lurking somewhere in those eyes, but it was hard to spot behind the dead look. The Doctor recognised the expression. This man had seen terrible things.

"Right," he wheezed, "no need to get nasty. I can do silent. Quiet as a mouse, me."

The guards continued forcing them along, until they reached a set of blast doors. The lead guard punched in a code at the keypad next to it and the doors slid open. Rose and the Doctor were brought past cell after cell, each clearly visible through the wall of plasglass. Some of the cells held emaciated, filthy people living in squalor. Some of them were almost certainly dead.

The group of guards stopped in front of one of the cells and used the keypad. There was a hiss of released air as the door opened.

Rose was pushed violently, sending her stumbling into the cell.

"_Rose?_"

Rose looked up at the incredulous voice, gagging at the smell in the air. A grimy but seemingly healthy man clad in rags was staring at her with disbelieving eyes.

"How'd you know my name?" Rose asked. There was an exclamation of 'oi!' behind her and the Doctor was tossed in with them, sending him sprawling on the floor. The cell door shut again.

"_Doctor?_" The man goggled for a moment, then understanding filtered into his eyes. He looked grim.

"Nice time you picked to visit," he said, looking at the Doctor as he pulled himself up. "Is it actually possibly for you not to find trouble?"

"It's debatable," the Doctor replied, surveying him darkly. "Who are you?"

"Captain Jack Harkness," the man said evenly, "and judging by your reaction you haven't met me yet. This is Gwen, and the one in a coma is Tosh."

Gwen looked at them with haunted eyes.

"Hello," she said dully. Rose did a double take.

It was Gwyneth from Cardiff!

The Doctor was bending over Tosh, frowning.

"I know her," he said aloud. "Met her taking a look at the Slitheen's fake pig alien." He examined her with care, taking her pulse. "How long's she been like this?"

"Two days now," Jack said, watching him warily. "They didn't give us any food for several days, and one morning she just wouldn't wake up."

"Is she gonna be alright?" Rose asked in concern. Tosh was deathly pale, cheekbones prominent in her skeletal face.

The Doctor looked up to meet Jack's eyes, seeing knowledge of what he was about to say already there.

"It's not likely, no," he said gently. "I'm sorry."

Jack nodded, and wrapped one arm around Gwen. She seemed to barely notice.

"So," the Doctor asked, "how'd that megalomaniac end up with control of the Earth?"

Rose interrupted.

"Who is he? I mean, you two seemed to know each other."

"I should do," the Doctor said. "Went to school with him. Probably me best mate, till after we graduated."

"What happened?" Jack asked.

"He was mad," the Doctor said simply. "Always had been, but it didn't seem o matter much up until he murdered one of our friends. He stole a TARDIS and took off before anyone knew what was going on. That was the last I saw of him till I started travelling, and next time we met he was trying to take over the universe and I was stopping him. Been enemies ever since."

"So… he's a Time Lord, then?" Rose asked cautiously.

"Yep. Lost in the Time War like the rest of them. Least, thought he was. Never thought of a Chameleon Arch. For all I know there could be a dozen Time Lords swanning around like a bunch of apes." Frustration colored his voice for a moment.

"So," he reverted to his previous tone, "you wanna tell me, Captain, why he's ruling Earth, or do I have to guess?"

"You're not gonna like it," Jack stated.

"Doesn't matter. Talk."

And for the next hour or so, Jack did.

**oo o0o oo**

"Fantastic," the Doctor muttered when Jack finished. He sighed.

"What happened to Harriet Jones?" he wanted to know. "She should have had another two terms left. Britain's Golden Age."

Jack snorted.

"I wasn't there, and not many people know about it, but not long after you regenerated a group called the Sycorax tried to invade. You challenged their leader to a duel and won, but apparently Jones still saw them as a threat because she had Torchwood One annihilate them before they could get clear of Sol system. According to what I heard, you were angry enough to find a way to have her dismissed."

"Fantastic," the Doctor said again darkly. "The bleedin' idiot!"

"Why?" Rose didn't understand the connection.

The Doctor made a sound of disgust.

"He changed established history, Rose. When Harriet Jones lost power earlier than she should have, that left a space for someone else to move in and manipulate it. If it wasn't for Idiot By out there the Master'd never have had enough power to get this far!"

"I dunno," Jack disagreed, "he had everything in place before then. Being prime Minister just made it easier."

"No," the Doctor said flatly. "It was a key event, temporarily increasing the malleability of the timeline. The Master's a Time Lord, remember. He knows how to manipulate temporal effects to affect the past as well as the present."

There was absolute certainty in the Doctor's voice. Rose wondered if the Doctor had ever done anything like that. He sounded so sure.

"And even better," the Doctor said angrily, returning to the subject of his future self, "he's not even planning on fixing his own mess, he's put it all on the shoulders of a single human!"

"Martha's strong," Jack said quietly. "She'll do it."

"An' what d'you think it's gonna do to her to do it?" the Doctor almost snarled. "You think she's gonna come out of this the same?"

"No one is," Jack pointed out forcefully.

"Look," the Doctor was losing patience, "it's his fault this mess came about, so it's Idiot Boy's responsibility to take care of it. Instead he's foisted it off on an innocent human coz he's too much of a coward to face dealing with the Master himself. He's so desperate for the company of another Time Lord he'll do anything." He tapped his temple with one finger. "Time Lords can communicate with each other's minds. I've seen inside his head, and it's not a good place."

He glanced at Rose, something intangibly different in his expression.

"Right," Rose muttered, tired of it all. "Listen, I'm going to try and get some sleep. Wake me if anything happens, yeah?"

She found the cleanest corner of the cell and taking off her hoodie, balled it up to use as a pillow.

The Doctor arranged himself against as wall not far from where she lay, clearly taking on the role of protector as she slept.

Jack saw the look on his face a little later, as he gazed at Rose. There was no doubt he'd learnt that his future self had lost Rose somehow. His expression was full of love mingled with desperate fear.

Jack glanced away, pretending he hadn't seen the unguarded emotions on his old friend's face. Some things deserved privacy.

-

Several hours later they heard the hiss of the door opening. The plasglass was transparent from the outside only, so that prisoners had no idea what was happening outside their cell.

A guard gestured at the Doctor.

"The Master wants you," he announced.

The Doctor glanced at Rose, fast asleep. Jack glanced at her as well.

"I'll keep an eye on her," he told the Doctor. The Doctor gave him a nod of acknowledgement or thanks, and left the cell.

He was taken back to the ship's bridge, where the old Doctor sat in his wheelchair near a small coffee table, and a maid stood with a tray of tea and scones.

"The Master orders that you both partake of afternoon tea," the guard ordered, "or face his displeasure."

"Right, thanks," the Doctor said, "you can toddle off now."

To his surprise the guard did so, leaving the room entirely. There was a distorted giggle.

The Doctor looked around to see a sphere hovering nearby; one of the so-called 'Toclafane.'

"Sod off," the Doctor told it. "Go find someone else to spy on. I'd like some privacy."

The sphere made a rude noise.

"You're no fun. I'm telling the Master." It winked out.

"Same goes for you," the Doctor told the maid.

"Leave her alone," his future regeneration interrupted. "He told her to stay here and if she doesn't she'll be punished."

The Doctor snorted, but sat in the chair opposite. The maid put her tray down and poured tea for each of them.

"Dismissing Harriet Jones?" the doctor began without preamble. "Good job."

"She committed genocide!" the old Doctor said fiercely.

The Doctor was unimpressed.

"What, right after they invaded the planet and tried to harm her people, the people whose safety was her responsibility? So you decided to get rid of her? Who made you king o' the Earth?"

The old Doctor looked faintly taken-aback.

"Thanks to you the Earth's in the hands of a nutter," the Doctor continued witheringly, "and some poor ape runs around trying to save it all by herself, while you sit here having a cuppa tea." His voice went suddenly flat. "An' to top it all off, you left Rose stranded in another universe."

"oh no, don't you bring Rose into this!" the old Doctor said furiously. "I suppose a little thing like the walls between realities doesn't matter, does it? Bringing her back could have destroyed the universe!"

"The universe can go hang," the Doctor snapped. "I care about Rose."

Their conversation came to an abrupt halt at the sound of a familiar chuckle.

"How interesting to finally meet a selfish Doctor," the Master said gleefully. "Whatever happened to saving the day no matter what the consequences?"

"I've got to have saved about every civilised planet in the universe at some point," the Doctor retorted flippantly. "M'thinking about retiring. Find a quiet beach somewhere. Or maybe not, look a bit daft in a pair of swim trunks, me."

"Mm, but there'd be Rose in a bikini," the old Doctor said thoughtfully. "I've always had a secret ambition to see Rose in a bikini, you know. Never have."

"D'you mind keeping your personal fantasies to yourself?" the Doctor demanded testily. He didn't like the idea of anyone else appreciating Rose in a bikini, even if that person did happen to be another regeneration. Not that _he_ would, of course, expect for purely aesthetic reasons. Of course not. Right.

"Ooh, I agree with your taste there," the Master agreed, pursing his lips in a silent whistle. "I'm sure she's quite… bouncy."

Both Doctor's glared at him. The Master only grinned, eyes filled with malice.

"If your ambition is to see her in a bikini I'm sure I can oblige you there, Doctor." He grinned laviciously. "I wouldn't mind a look myself."

He paused, in slight surprise and calculating reappraisal. The old Doctor's eyes were full of rage and thunder, and something dark and nameless, and while that was not what had caught the Master's interest. The other Doctor's eyes were just as dangerous, and as stormy; but here there was also a wild, desperate, barely-restrained madness right at the back of them. The haunted torment of the last Time Lord, executioner to the rest.

The Doctor and the Master stared at each other. Then the Master broke into a soft, satisfied smile, gazing at the Doctor knowingly.

A muscle in the Doctor's jaw flexed, but his gaze didn't waver.

"We all have our own forms of madness, Doctor," said the Master in a soft, almost coaxing voice. "And while your future regeneration's madness might lie in his desperation not to be alone, yours comes in quite a different shape, doesn't it? All the horrors of the Time War, all those lives, those failures – you can never be rid of it, can you? And dear little Rose has become your anchor. If anything were to happen to her then you'd unravel like an old lady's knitting, wouldn't you, Doctor?"

He kept smiling, staring, marvelling in the knowledge.

"And I'd hunt you down if I had to burn through the universe for it." The Doctor let the unyielding truth of his words show in his eyes.

"Stop it!" the old Doctor hissed. "That's what he wants, to drag you down into madness with him! You've just given him the key and put Rose in even more danger!"

But the Master had laughed at the Doctor's threat, suddenly loud.

"Excellent, Doctor!" he declared, his manic demeanour abruptly resumed. "A Doctor after my own heart!"

Grinning, he strode to the big windows and turned.

"And now, Doctor, let me show you the power I control! Witness Berlin – but not for long!"

He threw out his arms as the _Valiant _descended beneath the clouds, so that both Doctors could clearly see the hundreds of Toclafane, pouring down upon the city far below.

"Let the destruction begin!" the Master cried, and laughed.

**oo o0o oo**

When Rose woke up, stiff from sleeping on the hard floor, it was to find the Doctor gone and the Captain watching her.

"Where's the Doctor?" she asked, on the edge of alarm.

"Gone to have a chat with his other self on the Master's orders," Jack replied. "Probably hoping they start beating each other up or something."

"Oh." Rose watched him. "The Doctor didn't seem to trust you very much," she suggested delicately.

"Yeah, I noticed." Jack's tone was dry. "Time Lords don't much like immortals. Find them an affront to their senses and sensibilities." His mouth twisted wryly.

"You're immortal?" Rose wasn't sure whether to believe him or not.

"Yeah. Lucky me, huh?" Jack let his head fall back against the wall and closed his eyes.

The cell door opened and the Doctor stalked in.

Rose knew instantly that whatever had happened, it had made him furious beyond anything she'd ever seen before. Fury roiled off him in waves.

"Captain," he said without preamble. "How much of Idiot Boy's secret plan do you know about?"

"Nothing." Jack looked at him steadily. "The Doc hasn't had a chance to talk to me alone."

"Fantastic," the Doctor spat. "Just fantastic."

Rose watched him pace.

"Doctor?"

The Doctor spun around, an inane grin immediately pasted onto his face to mask his feelings.

"Yes Rose?"

"You alright?" She looked at him curiously, wondering whether she ought to be concerned.

"Fine, Rose," the Doctor said cheerfully. ""I'm just fine."

Rose eyed him, not at all convinced, but let it drop.

* * *

_END CHAPTER_

**Author's Note:**

_Ten has a bit of a god complex. I never thought he had the right to do to Harriet Jones what he did. Then I read an explanation by RTD that this came back to bite him on the arse when the Master used it to his advantage – I used that in this chapter – but that piece of information never made it into the final script._

_Ten's generally less merciful and more ruthless than Nine, for all Nine was a soldier. Ten reminds me of Seven sometimes, that way. He's also got an ego. Look at what he did to the Family of Blood – not so much because of what __they__ did, really, but because things turned out badly and it was his fault, and also because Joan blamed him for everything, and he didn't like that. And Harriet Jones – that was vanity. He had her dismissed because she ruined his noble gesture. It was petty, and selfish, and ultimately, a costly mistake._

Next (probably): Jack dies a violent death, news of Martha Jones, the Master turns his sinister attention to Rose, and we find out more about the mysterious Mrs Saxon.


	3. Sinister Intentions

**Title**: Two Timelines

**Author:** TardisIsTheOnlyWaytoTravel

**Story Summary: **Something's gone badly wrong with history. The Doctor, along with Rose, investigates to find an airship called the Valiant, an enormous paradox and ....himself? Stars Nine, and Ten.

**Setting: **Just after _Last of the Time Lords, _series three.

**Author notes:**

_As noted in the first chapter, this is a response to Jessa L'Rynn's August Challenge #1._

**

* * *

**

**TWO TIMELINES**

**CHAPTER THREE**

* * *

**-**

As time passed slowly in their cell the Doctor continued to burn like a slow fuse, his mood growing darker the longer he sat there, saying nothing.

Rose was feeling pretty worried by now. The only time she'd ever seen the Doctor quite like this was when he'd tried to shoot the Dalek with that giant gun when it was basking in the sunlight, and his murderous fury had swiftly turned to something desperately vulnerable and broken. This time though, the dangerous look in his eyes just kept getting deeper and deeper, as the darkness grew.

Rose couldn't help glancing over at where he sat silently, brooding. His face was an expressionless mask, which she knew was a bad sign. Who knew exactly what was turning over in his mind?

-

Searching for something to divert his attention, Rose suddenly thought of her confusion from earlier, forgotten until now.

"Doctor, if that old bloke was you, why'd he look different? I mean, I can understand getting old, but he's got _brown_ eyes, not blue. You don't change eye color just coz you're getting on a bit."

The Doctor winced a little, marginally distracted from his brooding contemplation of more pressing issues.

"Oh, I can answer that one," Jack put in, smiling a bit more wickedly than was necessary. "It's a Time Lord thing. You don't die, do you Doctor? You just change."

"Change?" Rose repeated apprehensively.

The Doctor shot Jack a black look, sighed, and resigned himself to explaining.

"Time Lords have this way of cheating death, see," he began reluctantly. "If something makes sick or injured enough that it'd do us in, then we can trigger this process that… heals us, I s'pose. Thing is, it also rewrites our DNA completely, so when it happens we get a new body, new personality."

Rose stared at him.

"All the times we've nearly died, and you never thought to mention this before?"

"Well, humans tend to find it a bit upsetting," the Doctor said, rather lamely.

"What, so you just let it come as a complete surprise?" Rose said incredulously. "Anyone ever actually stay with you after that happens?"

The Doctor thought about telling her about Adric, and Tegan, and everyone else who'd gotten over the shock quite well, thanks, but thought it best to say,

"Not often, no."

Rose shook her head.

"Anyone ever tell you you're a bit daft sometimes?"

The Doctor let a grin slip through.

"Not often, no."

"No, they're too busy marvelling at the greatness that is the Doctor," Jack said lightly. He gave a suggestive grin. "I've been to Proclaria, you know. They've got this legend about you, the sky goddess, and the inadequacies of a toga –"

"That was a complete misunderstanding," the Doctor said darkly.

"I am so hearing that story later," Rose told him, grinning.

The Doctor huffed, but lapsed back into silence.

"Oi, stop brooding," Rose leaned over and pushed his shoulder, "we'll work something out."

The Doctor didn't respond.

Rose looked at Jack.

"I'm starved," she said. "They feed you in here?"

Jack's face turned grim.

"Once a day, if we're lucky. If we're really lucky, I don't have to pay for it."

"Pay for it?" Rose asked carefully.

"Yeah." Jack stared at the wall. "Remember how I told you I was immortal?"

Rose nodded.

"Yeah, well, I can die, I just don't stay dead. So the Master sees that as a challenge to his creativity." Jack gave a mirthless smile, his eyes bleak.

Rose put a hand to her mouth.

"Oh my God, Jack…" She put her hand over his. He gave her a faint, weary smile.

"Don't worry Rosie, I'll live." There was a slight undercurrent of dark humour in his voice.

"Doesn't mean you should have to live with it," the Doctor spoke up. "I'll stop him, Jack."

The Doctor met Jack's eyes, his gaze very serious and intense.

Jack stared back for a moment. Then he nodded.

"Thanks, Doc."

The Doctor nodded once, then went silent again. This time though it seemed to be in thought, not so he could brood some more, so Rose was able to talk to Jack in a lighter mood.

-

They talked of his adventures, some with Rose and the Doctor in them, but mostly without, and his job at an organisation called Torchwood that had become his life and in a sense, his family. He glanced at Gwen and Tosh now and then as he talked; Gwen was still near catatonic, and Tosh was near death. He checked on her every now and then, but her condition remained the same.

"You should get rid of it," the Doctor stated when Jack told Rose about Torchwood's unofficial mascot, a pterodactyl named Myfanwy. He'd looked disapproving at a number of Jack's stories.

"Nah, she's harmless, and she can't leave the base," Jack dismissed his concerns, "besides, what are you supposed to do with an animal that's been extinct for 65 million years? Except for this one time when I was a Time Agent, there was this huge amount of temporal flux and for a day or so all the birds on earth were replaced with dinosaurs. They were back to birds again by the next day."

The Doctor snorted.

"That happen often?" Rose asked curiously. "Things happening that weren't supposed to and then going back to not happening, I mean."

"Surprisingly often," Jack said thoughtfully. "Some of it needs to be fixed because it deviates too far from the timeline, but a lot of it's just little hiccups that'll correct itself."

"Like what?" Rose wanted to know. "What's the most interesting thing you've ever seen that wasn't meant to happen?"

Jack was silent for a moment. Then he said slowly,

"The Time Lords in London in 1962."

"The what?" the Doctor asked sharply.

Jack shrugged.

"There was this really attractive girl wandering around by herself, clearly didn't know where to go, had 'tourist' written all over her. So I, being the chivalrous person I am –" a snort from the Doctor "– kindly went over to offer her my help. As soon as she spoke I knew she wasn't human. The Doctor," he tipped his head in the man's direction, "and his TARDIS are used to other languages so he doesn't have any problems with the accents, but she clearly wasn't and it came though in her voice. It was like an instrument, all chiming bells instead of a voice. When I asked her about it, she admitted she was a Time Lady on Earth for her honeymoon, and that the reason she was wandering around was because her husband had vanished somewhere and she had no idea where he was. He turned up after a while though, babbling about something and dragged her off to see it. So, for this one day, there were Time Lords."

Rose looked at the Doctor, who had gone very still and stiff. He wasn't looking at either of them.

"Did they have names?" she suggested to Jack.

"Yeah. The girl's name was Bellanatar, at least that's as close as I can get it, and her husband's was –"

"Theta," the Doctor said softly.

Both Jack and Rose gawked at him. In all the time either of them had known him, he practically _never_ said anything about his planet or people, and then only in the vaguest terms.

"We were so young," he said so softly they could barely hear them, still not looking at them, his eyes distant.

Then he snapped back to the present and sent them a look, dark and closed-off.

"Not a word," he ordered, "I don't want to talk about it."

Since this was followed up with a glare, they didn't say anything, just sat back in silence to ponder what they'd heard.

-

Rose's mind whirled. It had sounded very much as though the Doctor had implied that the young Time Lord had been _him_. Rose had known that the Doctor was nine hundred years old, but somehow it'd never occurred to her that he might've been married at some point. She remembered that he'd said he'd lost his family, once. Did he mean a wife? Kids, even?

The thought of it was an unpleasant shock, but at the same time it made her want to wrap her arms around him and tell her that she was here for him. She suddenly had a new perspective on why he avoided 'domestic' so virulently.

Jack hadn't missed the possible implications either. He watched the Doctor, reflecting on the cheerful young man who'd dragged his laughing young wife off to experience the delights of London. Kids on holiday, just a couple of innocent tourists.

Jack couldn't help the pang he felt at the contrast between the happy newlyweds and the taciturn man in front of him. If that really had been the Doctor, he didn't think he wanted to know exactly what had transpired to change him so much.

**oo o0o oo**

"Rise and shine, Doctor!" the Master hollered, walking beaming into their cell, a moment after the door _whoosh_ed open, while they blinked, disoriented, "Captain, Rose! I've got something to entertain you all!"

The Master walked out again, the guards dragging them after him. Rose sent a questioning look at Jack and the Doctor, but the two men looked grim. There was something triumphant in the Master's air, and that boded ill.

They emerged onto the bridge, where the older Doctor was already waiting in his wheelchair, looking resigned.

The master aimed something that looked a bit like a sonic screwdriver, and a giant flat TV screen sank down from the ceiling.

"A bit of excitement for my children," the Master proclaimed, gesturing towards the hovering Toclafane. "Miss Martha Jones has been sighted!"

A flick of the wrist and the screen was suddenly filled with grainy video, clearly a live video feed. It was fro man aerial view, but the camera was rapidly zooming in on something on the ground.

"There is a slight lag," the Master said happily, "but what you are seeing is happening right now, with a delay of only a few seconds. Practically instantaneous."

No one was paying him much attention, because they were watching the screen instead. The sound of distorted, childish laughter came from the screen as the camera pursued a dark-skinned figure in black, running for its life.

The Toclafane were chasing a young woman, probably pretty, although with the video quality it was hard to tell. As they watched she tripped, and went sprawling. She rolled onto her back as the Toclafane came in close, her face full of desperate fear.

"We win," one of the Toclafane giggled. What made it truly horrifying was the way the creatures sounded like children; gleeful, murdering children to whom the suffering of the humans they hunted was nothing more than a game.

"We caught you!" agreed a second voice, from a hovering sphere just visible at the edge of the screen. "You lose."

There was the whine of something electrical powering up and a bolt of white-hot crackling energy shot past the camera hitting the Toclafane next to it. Bits of metal flew everywhere.

"Hey!" the surviving Toclafane exclaimed, startled and indignant. The camera whirled as the Toclafane turned, to look down the barrel of an enormous blaster.

Before it could react there was a brief electrical noise, blinding light, and a sizzling crackly sound as the video feed was cut off abruptly, leaving meaningless static to play on the screen.

The Master let out a shout of rage.

"That shouldn't have happened!" he bawled, kicking the nearest chair. "Find out what happened to those two Toclafane and Martha Jones!" he yelled at the nearby Toclafane.

"Yes Master," they chorused, and blinked out.

Furious, he strode up to the Doctor in the wheelchair.

"I _will_ find Martha Jones, and when I do I promise you Doctor, she will _beg_ for death!" the Master declared venomously. "Take them away!"

He whirled in a sudden change of mind and added,

"Take the Captain to the torture chamber. I need to work off some frustration."

-

Rose and the Doctor were dragged back to their cell while Jack was taken off in a different direction.

Just as they reached the cell that Rose and the Doctor shared with Jack and Gwen and Tosh, a female voice spoke from further up the hallway.

"Don't lock up the girl again yet. I want to talk to her. Have her brought to the sitting room."

Without a word the guards propelled the Doctor through the cell door and shut it behind him, and escorted Rose in the direction that the Master's wife had gone.

The sitting room proved to be a large room furnished with a rich carpet and luxurious armchairs, and a couple of matching sofas. There was a giant television cabinet at the other end of the room, but Lucy Saxon was sitting on one of the sofas, pouring tea from a delicate china teapot into equally delicate teacups where they rested on a tray atop the low coffee table.

"You can wait outside the door," Lucy told the guards without looking up. They left silently.

-

"There's milk and sugar if you'd like it," Lucy said, finally looking up and surveying Rose intently, with that absent gaze that disturbed Rose. "Do sit down."

"What I'd like is for your husband to stop torturing Jack and the Doctor and feed those poor people in the cells," Rose responded tartly, but she sat down on the couch opposite. She added milk and sugar to her tea. She hadn't eaten or drunk anything in the entire time she'd been there, and she was feeling hungry and dizzy and her throat was parched.

She took a sip of the tea, and was grateful for it. It helped.

"What d'you want to talk to me for?" Rose demanded. She knew that she was channelling her mother, but didn't care.

Oh God, her Mum. Was she down there somewhere, suffering or even dead?

"Because you're with the Doctor, of course," Lucy said calmly. "I don't get to talk to people very often. One doesn't gossip with the help. Besides, everyone seems to hate Harry."

"What, and this comes as a surprise?" Rose asked disbelievingly. "How'd you think they were gonna feel? Why do you stick with him, anyway? Like being queen of the Earth?"

Lucy fixed pale blue eyes on her face.

"Because I love him," she said simply. "Because he is a raging inferno, because he is like the solar winds that go screaming through space at hundreds of kilometres an hour, shredding to atoms anything that stands in their path. He is destruction and death and yet so alive. I've seen the end, and after that, nothing matters. Only him. He is the Master, and I would stay with him to the end of the universe."

Hr words could almost have come from Rose, talking about the Doctor. It was twisted, warped, but the likeness was still there. Lucy's eyes shone clear with the same absolute unwavering belief that Rose felt for the Doctor.

Rose felt the bile rise in her throat.

A human girl meeting a Time Lord, someone greater and more alive, and simply _more_ than anyone she'd ever met, full stop. Someone who could do the impossible. Being offered a chance to be part of what he did, to be given a chance at a better life with some kind of meaning, a chance to see the stars…

The parallels made Rose feel sick.

"You understand, don't you? I thought you would. No one but us understands."

Lucy was right. In a weird sort of way, Rose _did_ understand.

"You interest him," Lucy said quietly. It took Rose a moment to realise that the subject had changed. "Harry always gets what he wants. I don't share. If he comes to you, I will hurt you more than he will."

Again, it took Rose a moment to follow.

"If he laid a hand on me the Doctor'd kill him!" Rose spat.

"That's why," Lucy said, still with that unchanging calm.

"He's sick," Rose told her. "A sick perverted _monster_. So are you."

Lucy just smiled that absent detached smile.

**oo o0o oo**

Rose was returned to her cell unbelievably furious and deep down very frightened, although she'd never admit it, to find the Doctor carefully examining a bloody shape on the cell floor.

It took her a moment to realise it was Jack.

"Oh my God!"

Rose's hand flew to her mouth as her stomach rebelled. She tried to control it, but found herself throwing up by the door.

"I hope the Master steps in it next time he comes storming in," Jack said.

Rose looked around o see that while still bloody, Jack was once again alive and whole. He and the Doctor were watching her with concern in their eyes.

"Are you alright?" Rose asked him urgently, still horrified at what had been done to him.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Jack said, rolling his head around experimentally and shrugging his shoulders. Both arms were once again attached. "Always feels a bit weird after he does that. Oh, Rose. Hey. It's okay, I'm fine now."

Rose couldn't help the tears that kept coming, and put a fist to her mouth to muffle the sobs. Her entire body was shaking uncontrollably.

Strong arms suddenly closed around her, drawing her close. Rose turned and pressed herself against the Doctor's chest, burying her face in his shoulder.

"It's alright, Rose," the Doctor said softly. "It'll be alright."

Rose just clung, wanting to be reassured and feel safe.

"His wife," she choked, "Mrs Saxon, she said…"

"What did she say?" The Doctor's voice was still gentle, but with a thread of steel through it.

"She said he –he's probably gonna –" Rose tool a sobbing breath "– try and rape me. To get at you."

Rose felt the Doctor's entire body tense and his grip tighten. She was kind of glad she couldn't see his expression.

"I'm not gonna let him touch you, Rose," the Doctor said after a moment. "He hurts a hair on your head and he won't know what's happened to him. I promise. Alright?"

"Yeah." Rose tightened her arms around him for a moment, then stepped back.

The Doctor's face was set in stone, a blank mask to hide his feelings. But his eyes burned.

-

_END CHAPTER_

* * *

**Author's Note:**

_The Time Lord & Lady in London meet Jack story is one I hope to eventually get done. It's partly written, but it's been that way for a while._

_There's maybe, oh, three more chapters after this? But each chapter is getting a little longer than the previous ones…_

_-_

Next chapter, quite possibly: The Master discovers U.N.I.T. agents have infiltrated the Valiant, Nine and Ten talk some more, and the Master has sinister intentions towards Rose…


End file.
